Re: "Marvell Hercules-2" card?

[Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%rek.tjls.com@localhost>]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 05:06:36PM -0400, der Mouse wrote:
> >> I had a look through 4.0.1's src/sys/dev ([...]) and didn't see
> >> anything that has the Marvell and Hercules names together ([...]).
> > I think I have one of these.  I will drop it in a system and see what
> > it looks like on the bus.  If I remember correctly, under Linux,
> > without proprietary Marvell kernel modules, it will attach as a plain
> > SATA controller but won't provide any RAID functionality,
> 
> That would be perfect for our use.  The only reason for contemplating a
> RAID card is that it appears to be approximately impossible to get 4 or
> more internal SATA ports on a card without some kind of RAID support.
> A willingness to run JBOD, whether from lack of RAID capability or by
> being RAID-capable and just being configured JBOD, is crucial here.

One option might be a new server motherboard.  Most of the ones based on
newer Intel chipsets now have 6 onboard SATA ports.

The other option that immediately occurs to me is to use port multiplers
or port expanders.  NetBSD has no support for these but then again, it is
a smaller and more general SMOP than a whole driver for a new SATA adapter.

So, unfortunately, that Marvell card I have is PCIe and I have nothing
handy with a PCIe slot to put it in.  Sigh.  I can maybe test later in
the week on a machine at work.

mvsata showed up sometime around the 5.0 branch point.  I don't know if
it works with all the Marvell SATA controllers -- it's mainly used by
the kernels for the various embedded Marvell ARM platforms in NetBSD
right now.

Thor